Travelers flying to China must now be able to show a negative corona test result prior to their flight, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) announced.
The test must be no more than five days old, and the institution where the test is taken must be approved by the Chinese Embassy in the country. These rules add to China’s already strict admission rules for travellers on international flights, and will apply until at least October 2020.
Under earlier Chinese rules, just one flight from one airline on one route from one country to China may be operated once a week. This constituted the so-called “Five Ones”-policy. These rules were later relaxed to two flights a week, after the United States imposed similar rules on Chinese flights entering the USA. Over the period of time these American rules were in place, the US indicated that it would only revise its policy if China did. When it did, the United States went ahead and relaxed the ban on flights from China to twice a week.